Friday, September 12, 2008

I'm a little late posting my cupcake this week because my first version of these came out like little apple rocks & the frosting was too runny. I must have been having a bad day in the kitchen. So, I decided to start over. I used the apple cupcake recipe from Chockylit with a few changes. She bakes apples to make an apple mash but I had some all natural (meaning it only contained apples, sugar & cinnamon) apple jam in the house so I decided to use that instead. I also left out the apple juice since I didn't want to buy it for 2 tablespoons, I added buttermilk instead. This new version created a nice high cupcake that didn't fall once taken from the oven. The flavor & texture were quite a bit like a carrot cake, I actually wish it had been a bit more appley, perhaps it needed that extra apple juice.

For the frosting I made caramel cream cheese, I thought the tartness of the cream cheese would be a nice flavor against the sweetness of the caramel. The first version came out too runny & never hardened up in the fridge. I think my ratio of caramel sauce versus butter & cream cheese was too high. For the second version I added more of both & the frosting had a nice whipped cream texture to it & it does stiffen up a little in the fridge. I recommend using a butterscotch caramel sauce if you can find it, we liked the flavor better than the plain caramel in the frosting.